A LITTLE HISTORY IN MEDICINE

1922 The scientists went to a hospital ward with diabetic children, most of them comatose and dying from diabetic keto-acidosis. This is known as one of medicine's most incredible moments. Imagine a room full of parents sitting at the bedside waiting for the inevitable death of their child. The scientists went from bed-to-bed and injected the children with the new purified extract - insulin. As they began to inject the last comatose child, the first child injected began to awaken. Then one by one, all the children awoke from their diabetic comas. A room of death and gloom, became a place of joy and hope. Photo Credits- Library and Archives Canada

Insulin was first discovered by researchers in 1921 and was first used to treat diabetes in 1922. This is roughly 1 year from discovery to use as medicine. Imagine if they had in place back then the same sort of bureaucracy we have today. Insulin may well not have been used until some time in the 40's. One could say that much the same thing would have happened with the discovery of penicillin.